September 14, 2024 – April 30, 2025

In this immersive installation, I invite you to explore the profound connections between ancestral wisdom, environmental stewardship, and the invisible forces that sustain life. Set within a serene greenhouse,

Sacred Breaths creates a space where trees and plants coexist, offering a sanctuary for reflection and reconnection with the natural world. As you step inside, your presence transforms the environment, the ambient colors shift and flow in response to your movements and breaths.

Collaborating with environmental scientist Dr. Eri Saikawa and the Saikawa Lab, we've integrated real-time air quality measurements that influence the installation's atmosphere.

This fusion of art and science reveals the delicate balance within this miniature ecosystem, making the invisible visible. Sacred Breaths is an exploration of our deep, innate connection to nature and the intricate networks that shelter and sustain us.

It's about recognizing that the air we breathe, the living beings around us, and the wisdom of our ancestors are all intertwined in ways we are only beginning to understand.

Please feel free to dive deeper into the concept, process, and ongoing study of Sacred Breaths from the catalogue excerpt.

concept & process

There exists an unparalleled state, extrasensory and requiring nothing. For me, knowing my ancestry and lineage, this monastic, hermit calling is an embraced presence of communion. Living in Turtle Island at the present moment, the forest has become my dwelling refuge.

Embedded in the forest, I often find a profound sense of connectedness after a wave of wonder. The trees seem to whisper secrets; the air feels different, my footing charged with life yet holding something intangible. What is it about the forest that washes over our tired perspectives? This question has been the starting point of my journey, leading to reflections on sacredness and the conceptualization of Sacred Breaths.

“When monasticism beckons you, it clearly and undoubtedly draws you into the embrace of untainted nature, to shed the skin of learning and awaken your ancestral connectedness to the sacredness of the universe, away from concrete, plastic, and language in all its forms.” Diary Entry, Winter 2023

Finding profound connectedness in the forest. And fully aware that mimicking the grandeur of a natural forest would be an impossible task and a futile attempt, I embraced this project as a reminder of what cannot be replicated or even deeply understood by our current limitations.

I didn't set out looking for definitive answers. Instead, I embraced uncertainty and curiosity.

• How can we get closer to ourselves and our connections?

• Why do we keep destroying millennia-old ecosystems to create inadequate recreations?

• How do we measure extrasensory experiences?

• Are we truly advancing if we are not preserving?

• What happens when we attempt to recreate a forest ecosystem within a constructed environment?

• Can we capture even a fraction of the forest’s essence?

These questions guided me as I began observing and curating plants and trees, knowing that any attempt to mimic the grandeur of a natural forest would be imperfect, and a poignant reminder of what cannot be replicated or fully understood by systems focused on immediate gain.

Creating Sacred Breaths has been about embracing uncertainty as much as being present and open. I don't know how the air quality will change throughout the exhibit. Seasonal shifts, visitor interactions, and plant growth introduce variables beyond control.

But isn't that the essence of nature itself?

By sharing this unfolding story—complete with its unpredictability and open-ended questions: Is it possible to inspire new ways of thinking, being, and relating to nature?

What other unseen connections exist within ecosystems?

How might these connections inform our understanding of consciousness and community?

Forests have been central to human narratives across cultures. From sacred groves to urban forests offering respite in modern cities, they are woven into our collective psyche.

One of the most exciting aspects of Sacred Breaths is an ongoing exploration of air quality, conducted in collaboration with the esteemed Dr. Eri Saikawa of Emory University. Setting up Air Quality sensors to monitor and study the air quality inside and outside the greenhouse throughout the exhibit's duration.

What can this comparison tell us?

• Does the presence of plants in a confined space significantly alter air quality?

• How does human interaction within the space affect these measurements?

• Could the greenhouse mirror a microcosm reflecting broader environmental patterns?

Visitors can access real-time data online integrated by Saikawa lab members Justin Lurie and Vera Wen through the Saikawa Lab website. As you step into the greenhouse, you'll experience the environment responding to you—the ambient glow shifting colors in real-time as CO₂ levels change.

By engaging with this live data, we collectively explore our impact on the environment and how intimately we're connected to it. It's not about providing answers but about fostering a deeper understanding.

As I worked on this installation, I grappled with the ethics of attempting to recreate a natural ecosystem, and being true to the forest..

Can we ever truly honor the forest within an artificial setting?

Are we honoring the forest by trying to recreate/mimic it, or are we diminishing its essence?

What responsibilities do we bear when we manipulate natural elements for artistic, scientific or educational purposes?

Although my practice often begins with naive and simple inquiries, this experience has been deeply conflicting ethically. I aim to preserve and promote the living forest, embracing our connections to nature within its bounds and under nature's rules. This becomes especially important as we erect a structure in the Science Gallery, a space where art and science intersect.

These reflections compelled me to consider my relationship with nature as an active participant who can either harm or heal regardless of intention.

Our Role in Preserving the Forest. Standing amid the trees, we feel both insignificant and profoundly connected.

What is our role in preserving these ancient ecosystems?

We are at a crossroads where our actions will determine the fate of these green sanctuaries.

How can we balance urban growth with ecological preservation?

What sacrifices are we willing to make to ensure the survival of our forests?

Is advocacy enough, or do we need to fundamentally change how we live and build our cities?

In most Indigenous cultures, the land is not something we own but something we are a part of. The Ecosystem considered as an Extension of Ourselves

What if the ecosystem is an extension of who we are?

Thich Nhat Hanh expresses this interconnectedness so brilliantly:

Embracing this perspective, preserving the forest becomes a matter of self-preservation. It challenges us to rethink our actions:

Are we harming ourselves when we harm the environment?

Can healing the Earth lead to healing within ourselves?

What practices can we adopt to nurture this symbiotic relationship?

Forests have been central to human narratives across cultures. From the sacred groves of ancient civilizations to the urban forests that offer respite in our modern cities, they are woven into our collective psyche.

In Beneath the Concrete the Forest, the CrimethInc. collective shares:

How have we become disconnected from the natural world? And why?

What steps can we take to reintegrate ourselves ethically and sustainably?

Join Me at Science Gallery Atlanta or in the Forest!

I invite you to be part of this unfolding experiment at the Science Gallery Atlanta at Emory University. Together, we'll embrace uncertainty and perhaps glimpse new ways of interconnectedness.

Exhibition: Sacred Breaths

Dates: September 14, 2024 – April 30, 2025

Location: Science Gallery Atlanta at Emory University

4800 Briarcliff Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30345
United States

In a world seeking definitive answers, Sacred Breaths values questioning and exploration. It's where Art meets Science, and the personal intertwines with the universal.

I hope that by immersing yourself in this installation, or a forest/natural environment near you, you become fully engaged—with the questions, uncertainties, and profound interconnectedness of the natural world.

With open curiosity and gratitude.

Whoaaa! You’ve made it this far!!! I’d definitely love to hear your feedback!!!

Sacred Breaths was made possible with the support of Science Gallery Atlanta at Emory University, as part of the RESILIENT EARTH exhibition season. Along with the generous contributions from Airveda, which provided the air quality sensors instrumental to this exhibit, and Site One, which supplied the plants and organic materials.